The Sikh Coalition announced in a press release the separate accounting of Indian American Sikhs in the United States Census 2020. This will be the foundation for a fair political representation since the population count serves as the basis for apportioning seats in the House of Representatives and drawing district boundaries to conform to the constitutional requisite of equal population, the release added.

The census data will also be used for redistricting, state legislative seats and other elected positions including city councils, school boards, and some municipal offices where minorities will be accounted for and positioned, it said.

“We cannot realize our nation’s promise of equal representation without being represented in the Census, which includes allocating funds for dozens of federal grant programs, including grants for minority business and industry development loans, natural disaster recovery, education, public health services, and Medicaid and supplemental nutrition programs,” United Sikhs legal director Manvinder Singh said.

“This will also push forward as a step on behalf of the Sikhs to be able to serve in the armed forces without exceptions,” he added.

The Sikh Coalition Feb. 12 said it commends the United States Air Force’s recent move to clarify the uniform and grooming accommodation process for religiously observant minorities, including Sikh Americans, who wish to serve.

Additionally, the coalition announced that Airman 1st Class Gurchetan Singh is the first Sikh American to secure a religious accommodation to serve in the Air National Guard.

Singh was originally born in India; he came to the United States in 2012 following his father, who was granted asylum after the Indian government’s violence against Sikhs in 1984. When he took the oath and became a U.S. citizen in 2013, Singh was inspired to serve in the U.S. military in order to defend the country that had afforded him and his family such significant opportunity, the coalition said.

After beginning a conversation with an Air National Guard recruiter during his time at the University of Washington, Singh contacted the Sikh Coalition for assistance in January 2019 which then submitted his religious accommodation request in April 2019. That accommodation was approved in September 2019...

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